A prayer by Sharon

Creator God,

Why did you make us all so different? Not that I want us to all think alike or be alike in every way but I’m thinking about differences that pit us against each other like colour and gender issues. Is it like a test?

Do you want us to feel one without looking or feeling similar—or are we meant to be living toward becoming one? Like with colour for example—we could intermarry continually until we all did look more or less the same. But no, that would mean our hearts wouldn’t change and grow—we could solve that particular “problem” physically but not emotionally.

I guess what I’m asking is why is it so hard for us to love one another? Even those of us who love you (as imperfectly as we do) and who know that you (across creeds and by different names) have asked us to love each other find that goal so difficult.

Today we have talked about how gender issues divide us and it has brought me, once again, out of my complacency—the feeling that we as Whitehorse United Church, and me individually—not if we “go deep” as Reverend Bev asks us to do. Help me to see whays I can work towards acceptance not only as an individual but as a member of this church body and this community.

Help me to engage in ways that are lovingly proactive and inclusive. Wake me up and work through me, I pray,

Sharon